The Libra scandal, which saw billions worth of crypto evaporate in hours, is still unfolding. The token briefly reached a valuation of $4.5 billion and quickly dropped 95%, signaling a potential rug pull.
After almost bringing the President of Argentina down with it, new details are emerging about the nature of the Libra token’s crash. Latest investigations revealed that insiders withdrew up to $99 million of the token from its liquidity pool.
On Wednesday, February 19th, crypto analytics firm Chainalysis shared the results of its investigation into the Libra crash. It revealed eight wallets that withdrew $99 million worth of tokens from the liquidity pool. The tokens in question were USDC stablecoin and Solana, as Libra launched on Solana-based Meteora exchange.
According to Chainalysis, the on-chain activity of these wallets suggested they were “closely related to the Libra creator team.” Specifically, these wallets received their funds directly from the creator of the Libra smart contract.
Libra Insider Denies Blame for the Crash
The latest revelations come after Bubblemaps, another analytics firm, and scam buster Stephen Findeisen, known as Coffezilla, revealed their findings. Bubblemaps and Coffezilla tracked down one of these wallets and used it to confront one of Libra’s insiders.
In an interview with Coffezilla, Libra’s “launch advisor,” Hayden Davis, confirmed he holds $100 million worth of tokens from Libra’s liquidity pool. Incidentally, this figure aligns with Chainalysis’s latest findings.
Still, Davis denies that the token was an intentional rug pull, where projects hype their tokens to investors only to sell them out from under them. Instead, he maintained that it was a plan that had “gone miserably wrong.” He also claimed that he won’t use these tokens for personal gain but will reinvest them in Libra.
Davis blamed “snipers” for the crash. According to him, these bot traders bought up much of the token’s supply as soon as it was launched. Subsequently, they dumped the token, with Davis powerless to stop them.
Interestingly, Davis also confirmed his team’s involvement in the Melania token. Specifically, one of the wallets that Bubblemaps found, labeled “0xcEA”, profited $6 million from Libra and $2.4 million from Melania, which also saw steep declines hours after the launch.
It is unclear how the team’s plans went “miserably wrong” twice in a row. What is clear is that both investors and regulators are determined to hold someone accountable.
READ MORE: Argentina’s President Endorses $LIBRA Memecoin — Back Off After 95% Crash
